


the moon reminded me of you

by Areiton



Series: Find Me In the World [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Estrangement, Future Fic, Healing, M/M, Pining, Post-Canon, Pre-Slash, Stiles Leaves Beacon Hills, Stiles Leaves the Pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 18:24:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13277268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: It had been six years since he graduated and eight since Derek Hale climbed in Braeden’s truck and drove out of his life for good.





	the moon reminded me of you

**Author's Note:**

> This is spawned entirely because of the moon the past three nights, which made me think of Derek. It's sadder than I intended, but also hopeful?

It had been six years since he graduated and eight since Derek Hale climbed in Braeden’s truck and drove out of his life for good.

At this point,  he’d been gone from Stiles' life longer than he’d been in it, a dubious honor he shared with Claudia and it made Stiles wonder sometimes, why he gave so much emotion and feelings to people who weren't there. 

He left Beacon Hills after the Wild Hunt. He left the pack, left the problems and the death and the whole mess of it and sometimes he felt guilty about that but he was watching the supernatural kill him, watching it kill his  _ father,  _ and he couldn't stay. So they packed up their little house of memories and left and he never looked back. Peter texted him a few months after they left, a strangely pleased,  _ I'm glad you’re gone. Be safe, Stiles. _

He wondered if Derek got the same odd blessing after he ran. 

He heard, later, that Scott was killed by a woman named Monroe. He wept for days and drank for months, after that, and almost-- _ almost _ \--went back, stopped only by his father's terrified eyes. 

It took years to let go of the fear, to let go of the supernatural--to not enter a room and assess it for threats, to stop looking for the exits and creating emergency plans, to go out without a baggy of mountain ash. 

It took a lot of therapy. 

He felt like a survivor of a war, and carried the guilt of that because he knew the pack was decimated after Scott fell. 

A wolf pack without an alpha, how could it not be? Especially with the pups so young. 

He felt like the walking wounded. 

His therapist said he had PTSD, which felt like the biggest  _ duh _ since he told Scott he was cursed.

But he got by. He got a job and he functioned. He dated, though it never felt  _ right _ or lasted long. He spent weekends with his dad and reading and sometimes he gardened. He learned to walk in the woods without flinching, and took up jogging. 

His life was simple and quiet and safe and he wanted it that way. 

Sometimes, he would realize he had gone a month or two without thinking about Scott or the others and he always crashed, a spiral of guilt and depression that spent him crawling into his bed for days. He heard his roof creak and resisted the urge to look for a lurking man in a leather jacket.

But on nights like this, he thought of Derek. 

When he glanced up, instinctive even all these years later, to gauge the moon and saw it bright and fat and close.

The wolf moon, he remembered. This month was the supermoon and the Wolf moon. 

And, as it always was, his thoughts were tugged inexplicably to the werewolf who got out, who shook off the black hole that was Beacon Hills. 

He hated Derek for that,  when he first left. Now he's just grateful that somewhere, somewhere in this big wide world, Derek Hale ran free and happy under the bright light of the moon. 

He unlocked his door and whispered to the moon, “Be good to him.”

Above him, the roof creaked a comforting response. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos give me happy feels. And I love hearing from y'all at areiton.tumblr.com


End file.
